


A Night at the Sunblast: an Out of Cryo story

by Quantum_Reality



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Unrequited Crush, before the end of the world, out of cryo, pre-Zero Dawn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-30 02:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11453859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quantum_Reality/pseuds/Quantum_Reality
Summary: Centuries before Rebecca "Becks" Johnson was awakened from cryogenic suspension, she was best friends with a girl named Jenna. Only Becks wanted to be more than just friends, and she could never quite decide how to express her feelings. When she looks back at her pre-Zero Dawn years, she has only snippets and pictures to remember Jenna by. This night was one of them.





	A Night at the Sunblast: an Out of Cryo story

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kitewalker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitewalker/gifts).



> This work is set in the "Out of Cryo" fanfiction 'verse created by **Kitewalker** , who has graciously allowed me to write this story of Becks and Jenna going out for a night on the town. I also want to thank her for her comments and encouragement in the course of writing this story.
> 
> Any omissions or errors, however, are purely my own.

It was late June in 2064, and the sky was a brilliant orange at the horizon as the sun began to set. Rebecca “Becks” Johnson was currently reclining in a comfortable chair under the gazebo out on the rear lawn, enjoying a refreshingly cool evening breeze. Her Focus was playing a slow song, something about sailing over the oceans, and she let her eyes half-close, letting the sound wash over her.

The dulcet ping of an impending call shook her to full alertness. On checking her Focus as she automatically stood up, Becks saw “Incoming Call: JENNA CARTER”. Almost unbidden, Becks’s lips curved into a smile. Part of it was knowing it wasn’t one of those stupid robo-calls about buying luxury tomatoes or whatever, but another part was knowing it was _Jenna_.

Jenna’s holographic form appeared about a meter and a half in front of Becks. Jenna waved, her face bearing her familiar slightly crooked grin. “Hey, Becks! What’s up?”

Becks couldn’t keep from grinning as well as she answered, “Hi, Jenna! I’m out at the gazebo, just kind of relaxing this evening. What’re you doing?”

“Getting ready to go out to the new club! Check out my dress, huh?” Jenna winked and whirled around to show off her apparel.

Becks took a good look at her friend and tried not to audibly gulp. Jenna had fixed her hair up with a bun on top, and her purple-with-a-golden-stripe-down-the-front cocktail dress left very little to the imagination. Becks managed to choke out, “Uh, it looks great!”

Becks paused and licked her lips. She blurted, “Wait, you said ‘a club’? You don’t mean that Sunblast club which just opened up, do you? I won’t be eighteen until October, and it’s for adults only!”

Jenna snorted and waved that off. “I’ve got us fake IDs and DNA finger-tabs, don’t worry about it!”

Becks pursed her lips. She wasn’t sure she wanted to risk another go-round with her mother over some of Jenna’s doings.

“Oh, come _on_ , Becks!” Jenna urged. “Like geez, we haven’t had a good night out in – well, I can’t even remember, unless you count school dances. And I’d rather not call Samara and go without you, because she’ll want to drag her boyfriend along and who wants to be the third wheel, right?”

Becks thought she would rather go to a movie with Jenna than a club, but… well, it was Jenna. The last of her resistance crumbled, and she muttered, “All right. Sure, I’ll come.”

Jenna beamed. “Great! C’mon, keep your Focus on and let’s go see what you’ve got in your closet.”

As it turned out, Becks didn’t have that much in the way of party outfits, but after enough blown raspberries from Jenna when she tried on dress after dress, she finally managed to settle on an upscale blue one-piece dress that, as Jenna had put it, suited her figure.

“All right, Becks! Pick you up soon in a flyer, kay?” Jenna waved as her hologram disappeared.

Becks cued her Focus to check on safety ratings as well as customer-satisfaction ratings about the new club, then while that was going on, she sighed and toed the switch near the bottom of her bedroom wall, kicking the self-projector into action. She regarded her “reflection” and gave the hand signal to turn her image around. She grimaced; her ponytail was a bit off. As she worked at the band holding her hair and began redoing her ponytail, a quiet knock at her door got her attention.

She called, “Gimme a second!” as she finished fixing her hair. She went to the door a moment later.

At the door stood Becks’s brother, Dennis. He took in Becks’s appearance and said, “Did Jenna ask you out?”

“Not like _that_ ,” Becks mumbled as she tried to stop the heat from rising up her cheeks. “Anyway, what did you want?”

“Ah, was gonna ask if you wanted to watch a vid tonight, but I see you’ve got other plans. Nice dress, by the way.”

“Thanks,” said Becks. “It’s just Jenna and me, we’re going to the Sunblast club.”

“Ooh, that new club for over-eighteens? You rebel, you,” teased Dennis.

“Oh, honestly, Dennis,” Becks groaned with a roll of her eyes. “I mean, okay, yes, I haven’t gone to one of those yet but the Sunblast is in a pretty safe part of the city. At least that’s what people say on Yelp.” At least, if what her Focus had reported back was accurate.

“I’m pretty sure Jenna wouldn’t purposely put you in danger,” said Dennis. He fiddled with the multicolored cube in his hand, then said, “Maybe you’ll get the chance to tell her how you feel. After all, you might as well be on a date if she’s dressed as classy as you for your night out.”

“Oh, believe me, she is,” Becks replied. She blushed and muttered, “Her dress showed _everything_ off.”

Dennis grinned. “Becks and Jenna under a treeee—Ow!”

Becks drew back her fist from socking her brother on the shoulder and said, “It’s not funny!”

“All right, all right. Don’t get mad,” groused Dennis with a roll of his eyes. As his expression grew serious, he said, “But for real, you should tell her. She’d be crazy not to go out with you.”

“And if she doesn’t feel the same way?” Becks rested her forehead in her hand for a moment as she leaned against the doorjamb.

Any further discussion was cut off as the front door signal chimed. As Becks brushed past him to answer it, Dennis called, “I’ll try to keep Mom from freaking out too much!”

* * *

Becks could feel the loud pounding beat of the club’s music through the sidewalk as she lined up outside with Jenna; they were in the middle of a lineup that stretched nearly halfway down the city block, and it was moving pretty slowly as the bouncers would let in a few people at a time.

She rubbed her fingers, feeling the slight bumps of the fake skin coverings; they had just enough blood to fool a typical club scanner, and the fingerprints were totally randomized. Not, thought Becks, that anybody bothered going that low-tech anymore when DNA records were so widespread.

Remembering what she’d talked about with Dennis, Becks leaned over and said into Jenna’s ear, “Can we talk? Like, after we get out of here later tonight?”

Jenna rested her hand on the small of Becks’s back and rubbed a bit. “Is everything okay?”

Becks swallowed against the sudden dryness in her mouth. _Damn it, spine, stop tingling at Jenna’s touch_ , she mentally ordered. “Yeah. Uh, I just want to talk, that’s all,” she said a bit hoarsely.

Jenna smiled. “All right. We’ll talk after. For now, let’s see if I can get us up the line, hmm?” She drew back from Becks a bit and struck a very particular pose which happened to emphasize her curves.

Becks facepalmed and muttered, “Oh my _God_.”

As it happened, though, Jenna’s gambit worked. One of the bouncers, catching Jenna’s subtly thrust-out chest as his eyes scanned up and down the crowd, gestured her forward, whereupon she grabbed Becks’s hand and they raced up to him, heedless of the annoyed grumblings of the others still in the line.

A scan later, and they were in, with Jenna’s empty promise to come back out and give the bouncer some personal attention trailing well behind them.

The music thundered in Becks’s ears, and even with Jenna bellowing in her ear, it was useless. Luckily, the two of them had long since mastered subvocal Focus communication, and upon switching to that mode, Becks could see Jenna’s lips barely moving as her voice sounded clear as a quiet day in her ear.

“I’ll get us some drinks, and we’ll find some cute people to dance with, all right?”

Becks nodded, not entirely sure if the stares she was getting from some of the boys and girls alike in the club were good or bad. More were staring at Jenna, though, and Becks’s eyes were far from the only ones aimed at a certain part of Jenna’s anatomy as she walked up to a servitor bot.

 _Get a freakin’ grip_ , Becks ordered herself. She looked around again and caught the eye of a girl she vaguely remembered from school. It wasn’t like Jenna was exactly blind to the fact that Becks liked girls, so much as Jenna seemed to have no idea how big Becks’s crush was on her. _So don’t pine after her tonight_ , Becks decided.

Before she could walk up to the girl, though, Jenna was back with two drinks. She smirked and subvoced to Becks, “Stupid ‘bot just scans IDs and only scans the buyer. So here, have a Vodka Swirlsplosion!”

They clinked glasses, then tossed back a hefty sip in unison. Becks promptly spluttered, coughing loudly as the alcohol hit the back of her throat. When she could breathe again, she practically bellowed through her Focus, “What the _fuck_ , Jenna?!”

Jenna covered her mouth, trying not to spray liquor everywhere as she nearly burst out laughing at Becks’s misfortune. When she stopped shaking in silent laughter, she gestured at Becks. “Drink up! Have some more!”

Becks cast Jenna a baleful look, but dutifully took a sip (a _small_ one) from the glass. On top of the heavy fumey taste of the alcohol, she could taste the tartness of some kind of fruit, plus the chemical remnants of the plants that made up the liquor.

Actually, reflected Becks, she had no idea if this stuff was even the real deal, or a very clever synthetic analogue.

Jenna was gazing expectantly at Becks; she reluctantly nodded in approval, upon which Jenna beamed. Jenna began looking around the club and noticed one of the boys from their school. The music trailed off just then, and in the sudden lull, she bellowed, “Drex! Hey!” and bounced over to him.

The tall, black-haired, blue-eyed, olive-skinned fit guy named Drex beamed at Jenna, and within a minute they were moving onto the dance floor, smoothly gyrating to the loud bassy song whose every beat Becks could feel reverberating through her. For just a minute as Jenna moved so her back was to Becks, Becks allowed herself to imagine it was her against Jenna on the dance floor, feeling their bodies practically rubbing against each other. And that some other random person was the one staring at Jenna’s butt, jealous of the one who had the good fortune to be dancing with the attractive blonde.

Remembering her self-admonition, Becks tore her eyes away from Jenna’s dancing and, as she sipped her drink, she realized she was near the girl she’d vaguely recognized from earlier. She smiled and waved, whereupon the attractive black-haired, brown-eyed girl smiled tentatively back. Becks extended her hand to shake and bellowed, “Hey!”

“Hey back! I think I know you from school, right?”

Slowly they released hands, and Becks nodded. “I’m Becks, and I’m sorry I don’t know your name.”

“Kim. And it’s fine. This is my first time out, too!”

“Cool.”

Becks shifted on her feet and wondered what to say besides that. Kim, for her part, was already bobbing her head to the music and swaying a bit from side to side.

_Should she ask Kim to dance?_

The music and the swaying bodies on the dance floor tugged at Becks, filling her with a longing she’d barely known existed. At school dances she almost always stuck to the edges, content to just hang out with friends and dance desultorily in a group.

Here, though, the club seemed to favor music with a heavy and fast beat, and it just—

A tug at Becks’s arm startled her. Kim was smiling and jerking her head in the direction of the dance floor. Becks’s jaw fell in surprise. _Kim wanted to dance?_

Kim tugged again and mouthed, _come on!_

Becks let herself be led into the mass of writhing and swaying bodies in the large square at the center of the club, and with a few hesitant false starts, began finding the right pace to move with the beat. Kim’s own utter lack of concern as she bobbed and weaved with the music filled Becks with encouragement, and soon she lost all track of time as one song flowed into the next, letting the music guide her as she swayed and rocked with its shifting beats.

But eventually, however…

The music fell to a lull, and Becks realized her legs were getting stiff. She reached out to tap Kim on the forearm, and said, “It was great dancing with you, but I have to sit down, sorry!”

Kim grinned. “It was fun dancing with you. You mind if I go…?” She gestured vaguely off to her side.

Becks, a bit deflated at realizing Kim wasn’t in the mood to hang out, nonetheless nodded. “Sure, go ahead.”

Kim leaned in. “You know how to get hold of me if you wanna do this again.” She tapped her Focus, sending her contact details to Becks before sauntering off the dance floor, presumably to find another girl to dance with.

Becks found an empty stool by a small table along the back wall of the club. As she sat on it, she sighed as the weight left her feet, wiggling her toes in relief. She looked out across the dance floor, and amid the flashing lights and gyrating bodies, she could see Jenna’s blonde hair and signature purple dress shifting and weaving in perfect unison with the guy she was dancing with - Drex, her Focus supplied.

Jenna had to like girls, Becks thought, or at least not be offended at the idea. After all, she’d seen Jenna dance with a girl every now and then at school dances or all-ages clubs.

Drex’s hand at the small of Jenna’s back sneaked down just a bit as they danced close together amid the tones of a slightly slower song, and _oh God, he’s going to grab her_ — Jenna smoothly tugged his hand up back to her waist. Becks only belatedly realized she was biting her lip - in longing or jealousy, she wasn’t sure.

She gave her head a shake and signalled at a servitor bot passing by in order to get another Vodka Swirlsplosion. Soon, she was sipping at her drink, her eyes fastening again on Jenna, now once again further apart from Drex as the music’s tempo picked up.

Dennis’s words echoed in her head: “ _Maybe you’ll get the chance to tell her how you feel._ ”

 _This is fucking ridiculous_ , Becks mentally groused. _How do I tell my best friend I get jealous when a guy is about to grab her ass? That I get butterflies in my stomach around her and I just want to kiss her for, like, forever?_

She sighed and took a hefty gulp from her drink and watched Jenna again. They’d done so many things together and yet she couldn’t tell Jenna the one thing that might draw them even closer. She looked away and took another drink, then closed her eyes and tried to imagine herself slow dancing with—

A loud voice bellowed in her face, “BECKS! Hey!”

Becks jumped, startled. _How the hell had Jenna managed to practically bounce up right in front of her?!_ “Holy _shit_ , Jenna!” Becks shouted back.

Jenna held a glass in her hand and was grinning just a bit too widely. Becks slapped her forehead, then subvoced through her Focus to Jenna, “You’re drunk, aren’t you?”

Jenna actually looked around to see where the voice was coming from, and swayed on her feet as she turned to look at Becks. She pointed and grinned. “That was _you_! I might’ve had … uh, a few while I was dancing.”

_Where the hell was Drex, anyway?_

Becks cued her Focus to scan for Drex, and finally spotted him off in the corner, his tag overlapping with that from a girl. She frowned at Jenna. “That guy had his hands all over you, what’s he doing going off with another girl already?!”

Jenna giggled and rolled her eyes. She moved to lean against the table (Becks suddenly realized her eyes were almost perfectly level with Jenna’s chest, and quickly looked up at her friend’s face). Jenna waved her hand. “I said I wanted to go talk to you, he said fine so I went to find you. Not two seconds later that chick’s practically sucking his face, but whatever. It wasn’t like I wanted to sleep with him.”

Becks’s heart leaped at that last. Maybe she could get Jenna sobered up—

Jenna stumbled and nearly fell into Becks’s lap; Becks leaped up, grabbing for Jenna, steadying her. “How many of those stupid drinks have you had, Jenna?!”

Jenna’s eyes went glassy for a second as she frowned. “Uh…” her lips moved, her eyes flicking this way and that as her Focus cued her to remember. She shook her head briefly, blinking as she refocused on Becks and grinned. “Six vodkas…. I think! I had some drinks from Drex’s glass too.”

How she had managed to not spill a drop on her dress was a story for the ages, Becks decided. For now, though… “Jenna, we really should get you home. It’s twenty-three hundred already!”

 _And Mom’s gonna kill me_ , Becks mentally groaned. Trying to explain the aftermath of Jenna getting half-plastered while sneaking into an 18-and-over club…

Jenna threw her arm around Becks’s shoulders and said, “Hey, before we go we should get a pic, yeah?” She waved her arm up at the ceiling, upon which a small round orb floated down near their eye level, its small helicopter blades whirring to keep it in the air.

“As long as you don’t show this to anyone else, Jenna. I _mean_ it,” Becks warned.

Jenna bobbed her head in happy acquiescence, then tapped her Focus, reaching up between their heads to do so.

As if by accident - Becks was never sure afterwards - Jenna’s hand slipped over Becks’s chest as she let her hand fall to her side.

It was all Becks could do not to visibly gasp even as her head thundered, her heart hammering a million times a second.

_Just… just focus on the damn camera._

She plastered on a grin, Jenna doing the same. She lifted her right hand with two fingers up, and the camera-bot dutifully blinked blue in preparation.

Yellow—

Jenna pressed a wet sloppy kiss on Becks’s cheek just as the LED went red and the flash went off.

Becks stood, riveted to the floor in shock as the image loaded into her Focus.

Jenna’s hand around her shoulder was also lifted in the two-fingers-up signal, and she was pressed right up against Becks, her mouth against Becks’s cheek. Becks herself could see she still had her overly-smiley grin in the picture.

Jenna beamed. “ _Awesome_ selfie! C’mon, let’s get out of here, huh?”

Becks, her heart still racing from Jenna’s accidental touch as well as her kiss, belatedly nodded. “Yes. Good idea. We can get a flyer home.”

Out in the cool night, away from the club, Becks closed her eyes, deliberately letting out a prolonged breath as she tried to let the tension drain from her. A slight thump into her side alerted her that Jenna was still not very steady on her feet, and she almost automatically put her arm around Jenna’s waist to steady her.

 _So much for the meditative destressing_ , Becks decided.

Jenna had that kind of almost childlike earnestness in her expression as she looked at Becks. “You’re a good friend, you know that, right? ‘M sorry I didn’t dance with you tonight, y’know. I should’ve.”

Becks, incongruously, found herself letting out a short chuckle. “I think the club couldn’t have handled us being that good-looking together.”

“Next time, I promise ya.” Jenna nodded, in that exaggerated overearnest way.

The flyer landed soon after, and the two of them bundled in for the ride home. In the dark interior, Jenna’s eyes soon fluttered shut and she slumped against the side pillar. Becks looked over at her friend. _I had an okay night_ , she decided. _But … how will I tell her what I really want now? She won’t remember any of it._

Becks turned to look out the window and stared up at the stars in the distance. Maybe the time would be right later. After all, the world wasn’t ending anytime soon.


End file.
